There are calls for tighter restrictions on the importation of chemicals to New Zealand, after a Dunedin woman was caught with a potentially lethal 800-litre stockpile in the basement of her home.
Lien Duong (25) was yesterday ordered to pay $25,000 in fines, plus $3628.02 in costs, after earlier admitting storing 778 litres of acetone, isopropyl alcohol and EMA in the basement of her rented Mornington home.
The chemicals were destined for Duong's Dunedin manicure business, but the amount was well above the 100l allowed to be stored at her home.
Experts feared the stockpile could have triggered a "catastrophic" explosion that destroyed her home - located just 100m from Mornington Primary School - threatening the lives of neighbours and firefighters.
Dunedin City Council environmental health team leader Ros MacGill told the Otago Daily Times she was concerned the chemicals were able to enter the country and be delivered to Duong's home.
Duong needed to be an approved handler with an approved hazardous substances location, and comply with site and storage requirements, but did not meet the requirements, court documents showed.
Despite that, her order was not questioned by New Zealand Customs or the transport company delivering it, Ms MacGill said.
Both had operated within existing regulations, but it appeared there was a "loophole" that needed to be addressed.
"We have obviously got concerns if this amount got through without any red flags going up. From our perspective, we would like to see this loophole being tightening to give us some assurance it won't happen again.
"Those large quantities should have triggered a warning bell," she said.
However, Erma New Zealand hazardous substances general manager Andrea Eng, of Wellington, said "existing regulations are sound" and no loophole existed.
"It is not illegal to import the chemicals concerned in this case. What was illegal was the way they were stored."
Strict controls - including tracking - were in place for substances "at the high end of the spectrum", as laid out by the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996, she said.
The Act covered all hazardous substances imported, manufactured or used in New Zealand, and stipulated controls depending on the threat level posed by the substances and their storage.
Less dangerous chemicals were not tracked but were still subject to regulations, she said.
It was up to those receiving the chemicals to understand the rules.
"The key issue here concerns storage and the fact that the rules for storing these chemicals were not followed," she said.
Customs trade and marine group manager Paul Campbell, of Wellington, agreed the responsible use and storage of the chemicals was, in cases like Duong's, "the onus of the importer".
Her order would not "raise any red flags" as long as existing compliance requirements - such as being correctly declared - were met.
"If there was information that suggested these goods had been unlawfully imported, we would be interested to receive that information," he said.
However, hazardous substances expert Rex Alexander, of Dunedin, and Duong's defence counsel, Max Winders, both believed the case had exposed a weakness in the country's system of checks.
Mr Alexander said the chemicals Duong imported were not tracked because of their type, regardless of the quantity.
However, checks would have been likely if Duong had ordered the chemicals through a member of the New Zealand Chemical Industry Council, requiring Duong to produce her certification, he said.
Duong had circumvented that by sourcing her chemicals internationally, via the internet, he said.
"There's an issue there, I think. Anyone can go on the internet and buy their stuff and import it. The chance of it being caught up is not great. It's not going to trigger any warning buttons with Customs . . . and it should."
Mr Winders said it seemed "daft" to track even small quantities of the most hazardous substances, but not larger quantities of less dangerous chemicals which, when stockpiled, could pose a greater risk.
"You are talking quite a large quantity here, that didn't trigger anything. If you ordered a container, would that trigger anything? Frankly, I don't know."
